Hogwarts High
by messenger of home-baked pie
Summary: An American High School romance twist on Lily and James' love story. Lily Evans, top student at Hogwarts High and rule-observer if ever there was one, can't stand James Potter - even if he is captain of the football team. But as the year goes by in a whirl of parties and texts and wild nights of discovery and learning, her perspective slowly starts to change. Had she misjudged him?
1. WYD?

"He's looking at you again," Mary Macdonald whispered, sounding like she might break out into a fit of giggles at any moment.

Lily looked quickly at Mrs McGonagall, but the teacher was focussed on typing something on her laptop at the front of the room while the students worked. She elbowed Mary hard. "I know that. He's always looking at me. Stop encouraging him."

The brown-haired girl's petite features strained against her quite apparent urge to giggle, and Lily rolled her eyes. She could feel James Potter's gaze on her, like radiation from the sun, and continued to ignore it the same way she always did.

"Do you think he'll ask you out today?"

She sighed. "Well, he asked me out yesterday, the day before that, and just about every other day this year, so I would imagine so, yes."

"Oh, you're so dramatic. It was not every other day, Lily. He's only asked you out a handful of times."

"And one might think," Lily said with a frown, "that a handful of rejections would be enough to get a message across."

Lily was distracted by her phone buzzing in her pocket, but she didn't pull it out. She knew McGonagall would confiscate it if she even had it out on the table. That didn't stop everyone, of course. Some people had their phones out under their desks, which worked fine until they ended up suspiciously gazing at their crotches for minutes on end.

A few students were, like Lily, copying the notes down from the whiteboard, though not many. The ones who were supposedly using their laptops to take notes were really watching videos or playing games, all with no sound - McGonagall had a strict policy on headphones in her class.

A few other students were doing a terrific job of hiding the fact that they were sleeping. Their heads rested in the crook of their arms, covering their faces and selling the idea that they were really just hard at work.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows, forcing Lily to squint her left eye as she gazed forward at the notes.

"Why do you keep rejecting him, anyway?" Mary asked. "James Potter is a catch."

"He's so full of himself, Mary. Him and Sirius Black walk around the whole school like they own the place, which, for all intents and purposes, they basically _do,_ considering the way everyone fawns over them."

"So you don't like him because he's… popular?"

"And he's a bully."

Mary scoffed. "You exaggerate so much."

"I _saw_ him beat that Snape kid up a year or two ago, Mary. I had to stop him."

Mary shook her head. "You didn't hear the full story-"

"I don't _care _about the full story. There's never an excuse for violence."

Mary looked at her in exasperation. "You are so stubborn."

"I'm sorry for having moral standards."

The brunette sighed and looked at her with a wrinkled nose, still not seeming to believe what she was hearing. "You're mental. The captain of the football team, who has all the other girls in this school fighting for his attention, only wants you, and what do you say?"

"No," Lily said flatly.

"You say no. Honestly, Lily, when you're forty you will look back on these days and wish you had grabbed that boy by the collar, dragged him into the changing rooms and gone to town."

"Ew."

"Really Lily, as your best friend, I need to talk sense into you. That boy has the best looks in the state of California, and-"

"Oh, now who's exaggerating?"

"Fine, the best looks in the school, then. Happy?"

"No. I happen to find someone else much more attractive than him."

"Who?"

Lily blushed. "Tom Davies."

"The captain of the basketball team? That's just a different sport! And arguably a much less cool one-"

"Debatable."

"He's so boring, Lily!"

"He's a nice guy, and-"

The bell for lunch rang and the rest of Lily's sentence was drowned out by scraping chairs and the immediate buzz of chatter that filled the room and drifted in from the open door.

McGonnagal raised a hand and all the students in the room froze, words dying on their lips. "I'll remind you all that your assignments are due tomorrow. No extensions, no excuses."

A few people nodded, a few others looked like they were wondering if their excuses might be good enough.

"Avery, Mulciber, sleep in my class again and your parents will receive an email from me inquiring about your sleeping arrangements at home." The two boys gulped, and with that McGonnagal inclined her head in dismissal, and the students resumed their progress out of the room.

"So do you _like_ Tom Davies?" Mary asked, picking their conversation back up as they left the classroom for the cafeteria with the others.

"Yes, but keep your voice down," Lily hissed, looking around anxiously.

Mary laughed. "I could yell his name to everyone here and no one would care. It's just Tom Davies."

Lily scowled. "Well don't. I don't want anyone knowing."

"Do you want James to know?" Mary asked, looking behind them.

"What?"

"He's coming this way, and he's heading right for us."

Lily's eyes widened and without looking back she quickened her pace. Mary laughed as she trailed along.

They found a table some way away from the main hustle and bustle of the cafeteria, and Lily continued fending off Mary's cajoling while they ate lunch. At some point, Lily's phone buzzed again. She pulled it out and saw two unread messages from an unknown number.

"Is that Celestina Warbeck as your wallpaper?" asked a laughing voice behind her.

She grinned and turned to look at Remus Lupin. "Yeah, she's always been my favorite singer."

Remus' eyes crinkled and he brushed his light brown hair off his forehead.

Sirius Black scoffed from beside him. "She's rubbish."

Lily glared at him. "Can I help you?"

"No."

Remus grimaced. "For God's sake, Sirius." He looked at her apologetically. "We'll get out of your hair. See you later!"

She smiled and waved. "Bye, Remus."

Once they'd gone, Mary spoke up. "Let me guess, _he's _your type, too."

Lily glared. "He's a far sight better than his friends, that's for sure."

Mary rolled her eyes before making a funny face at her phone and taking a picture, swiping a few times to get the right filter.

Lily glimpsed the name Antonin Dolohov as the recipient of the Snap. "Who's that?"

"Some guy from Durmstrang. He followed me on Instagram the other day and we've been talking."

Lily made a face. "All the guys at that school are weird."

"Yeah," Mary agreed, not looking away from her phone. "He's definitely not my type."

"So… why are you talking to him?"

Mary looked at her like it was obvious. "He's throwing a party this weekend. His house is, like, a mansion or something. His parents are stupid rich. They're away at Bali, and it's going to be _crazy_. Everyone who's anyone is going."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

Mary shrugged and went back to her phone. "Few people from Hogwarts, some popular girls from Beauxbatons that I know of, his mates at Durmstrang. And have you heard of Lil Hippogriff? He's a rapper, apparently. Antonin and him are friends, from what I know."

Lily was sceptical. "What does he rap about?"

"Drugs, cars, sex. You know, the things that matter."

Lily laughed. Then her phone died abruptly, and her laugh died with it. She stared at the blank screen, aghast, and cursed herself for listening to a podcast all night without charging it.

Because of this, it was only when she was lounging in her bed that evening and her phone had been charging for at least ten minutes that Lily realized she'd forgotten that she had unread messages. Now there were three of them.

_Hey_

Twenty minutes later.

_How you doing?_

Almost two hours later.

_...this is a fake number, isn't it?_

Who an Earth could this be? Lily narrowed her eyes and quickly wrote back.

_Who is this?_

She switched off the display and made it to put it down, but before her hand had even reached the bedside table the phone buzzed and the screen lit up again.

_Oh, hi. Who is this?_

She glared and tapped away quickly.

_I asked you first_

The response was just as prompt.

_I asked you most recently_

_YOU started talking to ME, pal. I don't have to answer shit_

There was a small pause before the next message came.

_Alright, this is definitely Lily then, right?_

Her eyes widened and she sent a response immediately.

_Who is this? This is getting creepy, I'm blocking your number_

It came instantly.

_This is James ahahahahaha_

"What?" Lily exclaimed thunderously.

"Everything alright, dear?" called her mother from down the stairs.

"Yes, Mum. I'm all good."

She tapped the three small dots at the top of the screen, and an option appeared saying 'Block Contact'.

Lily's thumb hovered the button.

The phone buzzed again and a new message popped onto the screen.

_So what are you doing?_

Slowly, her thumb moved from the button and drifted towards the keyboard.

_Not much. You?_


	2. Change

"Who are you texting?" asked Mary, settling into the seat next to her for the first class of the day.

"No one," said Lily, slipping her phone into her pocket.

"Is it a boy?"

"I was checking the time."

"It was a boy, wasn't it?"

Lily gave her a look, hoping that would shut her up. It did, if only for a few moments.

"Is it Tom Davies?"

"Mary," said Lily, "I was checking the time. Not texting."

Mary raised an eyebrow. "Okay." A few seconds passed. "I've just never seen someone tapping away on their keyboard in order to check the time, that's all."

Lily groaned. "Can you drop it?"

"No."

Lily's phone buzzed in her pocket. She didn't check it.

Mary opened her mouth to press the matter further, but the bell rang and Mr Slughorn came bustling into the classroom. "Okay! Who is ready to do some _chemistry_?" If he'd expected cheers from the students, he masked his disappointment well. He grinned at them all like he'd received a round of applause, and then opened up his laptop on his desk and frowned at the screen.

"Do you need help, Mr Slughorn?" asked Benji Fenwick kindly from the front row.

Slughorn chewed his tongue. "Software update may take up to two hours," he read aloud.

There were soft cheers from the students that Slughorn didn't notice. As Benji continued to provide tech support from his desk, Lily slipped her phone from her pocket and held it under her desk. She looked at the message.

_Enjoy your free period_

Lily frowned, looked around. James wasn't in the room. She texted back.

_What?_

The response came quickly. _Let Slughorn know that he won't be able to use his laptop until he updates it_

Realization slowly hit Lily, and she shook her head, smiling and biting her lip.

_What did you do, Potter?_

_I did him a favor, Evans. His software was way out of date_

She was grinning now. Another message came and she looked at it quickly.

_And it's not my fault he just leaves his laptop lying around_

She snorted, trying to be quiet.

_When I say lying around, I mean locked in the staffroom. Again, not my fault_

Lily giggled, really giggled. Mary stared at her like she'd lost her mind, and a couple other students gave her odd glances.

"What's so funny?" Mary asked. "I never thought I'd live to see you giggle."

"Nothing," said Lily.

Mary raised an eyebrow. "Is it the same nothing you were texting earlier?"

Lily was barely listening, typing up a response under her desk with her phone angled away from Mary.

_omg Potter_

No sooner had she sent it than the response came.

_Well you did tell me you weren't looking forward to Chemistry…_

Once more, she could only shake her head and smile.

For hours the previous night, the two had stayed up texting each other. Lily had almost felt like she was twelve again. Their conversation starting with 'what are you doing' had moved to classes and teachers, gossip on various students, then to their favorite TV shows and movies. Eventually they were just sending each other memes back and forth, which was fun. It surprised her very little that James seemed to have a library of hilariously salacious memes.

It was at three in the morning that she'd drifted off to sleep, phone in hand, and when her alarm went off at half past seven she'd opened her phone to see that James had not slowed his barrage of messages at all in her absence.

She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the whole thing. James Potter was a bully. He was arrogant and immature. She couldn't stand him. Or at least, she shouldn't have been able to. And yet she did. So much so that she found herself actually looking forward to his responses, anticipating them. It was enough to infuriate Lily.

Mary continued to press Lily for answers throughout the day, and Lily staunchly refused to divulge. She didn't want to hear what Mary would make of the whole thing.

More questions were raised for Lily at lunch. She was sitting in the cafeteria with Mary and a few other friends, laughing while Mary told a story.

Someone cleared their throat behind her.

Lily and the others turned to see Sirius Black looking at one of the girls, Dorcas Meadowes, with a cocky, smug look in his eyes. He was flanked by James. Lily stared at the messy haired boy, who was looking everywhere around the table except at Lily.

"Dorcas," said Sirius, giving her a charming smile, "are you coming to the party tonight?"

Dorcus blushed under his gaze and smiled back at him. "I wasn't intending to. No one knows where the party is, do they? Only the super," she eyed him and bit her lip, "the super popular people do..."

"Great," said Sirius, nodding. "I'll pick you up at seven then, shall I?"

"How do you know where she lives?" asked Mary.

Sirius' smile widened, and Dorcus' blush deepened.

"Oh," said Mary.

"This one has yet to learn," Sirius said, nudging James with a devilish grin.

James looked bored. "And I'm sure she will, at some point."

Mary scoffed. Lily glared at the boy, and when she spoke he finally looked at her. "What are you implying about Mary, Potter?"

James gave her a polite, distant smile. "Oh, nothing, Evans. I would never imply anything untoward."

Was he going to act like they _hadn't_ spent the last day messaging each other without pause?

With a nod, Sirius and James walked off. Lily stared disbelievingly at their retreating figures. He really was.

Mary nudged her arm. "We're going to that party, by the way."

"What? How?"

"The boy from Durmstrang I was talking to is _throwing_ the party, Lily. He gave me the address. We'll go in with some of my friends from Beauxbatons. Beauxbatons girls always get invited to these things. The boys, too. Everyone in that school is so damn pretty."

Lily wasn't sure what to say, and felt anxiousness creeping up on her. "I've never been to a party this big before."

Marlene waved a hand airily. "Just drink, and then keep drinking. It'll come to you."

By the time they reached the party that night, Lily could certainly say that she'd followed Marlene's advice. Her head spun, and the taste of whiskey still lingered in her mouth. The Beauxbatons girls had been rather liberal with the shots, and Lily had gone with it.

As the mansion in front of her, for it _had_ to be a mansion, swam in her vision, she found herself regretting that decision. The place was huge, but she barely took much in. They walked through, and the bass from a loud rap song pummelled Lily's ears, and the racy lyrics were drilled into her head.

There looked to be plenty of people about, but the place was so big that the lot of them seemed quite small in comparison. Everyone was holding plastic red cups, or drinking straight from large bottles. Looking at the liquid made Lily feel queasy.

There were couples in every direction with their tongues down each other's throats, their hands roaming from hair to shoulder to bottom.

A boy Lily didn't recognize appeared in front of her and hugged one of the Beauxbatons girls. "You made it!"

"He's from Durmstrang," Marlene told Lily.

Lily was barely listening. She hiccuped, and with the release of gas she felt it, felt the urge, the surge, of fluid rising to her throat. Her eyes widened and she ran, stumbling. Mouth closed tightly. No, no, no, no, no.

Turned a corner, barged between a couple getting handsy.

"Hey!"

Kept moving. Desperately. Any moment now…

A door. Lily ran to it, burst through it, and emerged onto a balcony overlooking a-

She leaned over the railing and threw up, heaving and coughing and spitting and heaving again.

-overlooking a lush garden, lit up with fancy lights and maintained to perfection. How pretty, she thought, before she heaved again

"Someone kill me," Lily mumbled, tears having risen to her eyes from all the bile, her body's way of letting her know that it wasn't a fan of the experience.

"Careful what you say on a balcony, Evans," came a voice from behind her. "I could make it look like an accident, you know."

She closed her eyes. Anyone but him.

His footsteps drew near and then stopped, and she knew he was next to her, leaning against the railing. "Rough night?"

"I just got here," she said miserably.

He snorted, and looked down at the garden. "Well you've certainly made your mark on the place."

She followed his gaze to the puddle of vomit below, and heaved over the railing again. Nothing came out.

A cup appeared in her bleary vision. "Here. It's water."

She took it and sniffed it.

"Come on, Evans. Really? You don't trust me?"

She scoffed, sipped it, rinsed her mouth briefly and spat a mouthful of water over the railing, before looking at him. "Of course not."

"But," he said hesitantly, "I thought that maybe, you know, while we were texting, that we had gotten, like, closer. Right?"

"I had thought so," she said, sipping the water again. "But then you and your friend Black reminded me that you're an arrogant and self-satisfied prick."

He smiled at her. "Come on, I'm telling you, I'm trying now. There's bound to be an adjustment period. No one changes overnight."

But she thought he had. Somehow, she'd tricked herself into expecting the impossible. Grudgingly, she figured he had a point. "That's all well and good. But someone like you and someone like me don't work as friends, Potter. We just don't." She gestured to the mansion vaguely. "You thrive in this sort of sphere, like it's your domain. You hang out with the Sirius Blacks and the Rodolphus Lestranges of the world."

"I can't stand Lestrange," he corrected with a scowl.

Lily pressed on. "Because of all that, it makes you the kind of person that I can't stomach being around. I've heard of the things you've done, Potter. It's not pretty."

It was his turn to scowl. "Are you referring to the business with that Snape kid a year or two back?"

"Among other things, yes."

"Because that-"

"Look, I don't care about the story. I care about the result. If you haven't noticed, the people I surround myself with are very different from you and yours. They carry themselves, and treat others, very differently than your lot do."

He looked at her and sighed. "What if… you gave me a chance?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"On a trial basis. A tentative friendship-"

"Not friendship."

"Acquaintance-ship then. What do you say?"

She hesitated. He stuck out his hand and offered her a lopsided grin. After a moment, and with the utmost trepidation, she took his hand and shook it.

"Brilliant," he said, grinning. "Now let's get out of here. My car's parked-"

"Hold on, Potter," she said, glaring. "If you think that was me agreeing to get _freaky_ with you, you must be-"

"Evans," he said, laughing, "I'm taking you home. You need to get out of here, hydrate yourself, and sleep."

"Oh." She bit her lip, folded his arms. "Well, you're not driving drunk."

"I'm not drinking tonight. I had an injury at football practice, so I'm on some strong painkillers for the next few days. No alcohol."

She stared at him. "Oh," she said again. "Well, alright then. You may, um, take me home, I guess. Thank you."

He smirked, and led the way out.

They chatted amiably on the drive to her place. His car was nice, but the inside messy. The air freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror filled it with the scent of pinewood.

"Just on the left here," she said.

He pulled up outside her house. Turned to look at her. No expectation on his face, just warmth in his eyes. It wasn't too bad being around him, she had discovered.

"Thanks again, Potter," she said, offering a smile as she undid her seatbelt. "Really."

"Any time," he said graciously.

She opened the door and put one foot out.

"Oh, Evans. Wait."

She looked back with a raised eyebrow, and cracked a smile at what she saw. He held a bar of chocolate out to her, still wrapped and looking delicious from the cover. She hadn't realized how hungry she'd been since throwing up all her insides.

"I haven't always thrived in that sort of sphere, back there," he said with a wry smile. "I know what it's like, trust me. Drink plenty of water. Try to urinate at least twice- I know, that's gross. But you need to do it if you want the morning to treat you well. Okay?"

She nodded, amused. "Okay." She stepped out, and just before she shut the door he called out again.

"Oh, and Evans?"

She leaned down and looked in at him.

"Text me when you wake up, just to let me know. Alright?"

She bit her lip as she looked at him, and nodded. "Alright."

Lily closed the door and stepped back. Waved to him, turned around and walked up her driveway, shaking her head to herself.

Maybe some people _could_ change overnight.


End file.
